Composing Movement With Akira Kurosawawhatweseee, 2 months ago

/ THE ARTS

The influence of Akira Kurosawa cannot be overstated. With a career spanning over 50 years, from early works like Drunken Angel and Rashomon to an Acadamy Award for his lifetime contribution to film, he’s helped shape the entire landscape of the medium. But this video takes a closer look at one of Kurosawa’s greatest talents — his ability not only to capture, but to use movement in brilliant and unprecedented ways.

His secret? Well, it may be that, more than other filmmakers, he’s simply more in touch with the foundations of what it means to be human. “When there is talk of humanity in Japan, everyone thinks of complex subjects and stories,” Kurosawa once said. “However, whatever an ordinary human feels, we try to project on the screen in an honest way. That’s all.” With an understanding of humanity — and a background as a painter — he’s able to understand how to use the film as a canvas, using motion to capture a mood, feeling, intent, or emotion with ease.

You can see the whole video here:

There are so many different ways movement and film collide, but Kurosawa’s gift, in part, is using so many of them beautifully blended together. With that, he composes movement like no other.